


Barely breathing

by Anonymous



Series: Rosa's medical room adventures [1]
Category: Brooklyn Nine-Nine (TV)
Genre: Amy hates hospitals, But not in the first ch, F/M, Jake is just sat there being his lovely self and trying to make everyone involved laugh, Sick Amy, Sort Of, alright that's enough tagging for now, and has a medical room, first ch amy almost dies, full of surprises rosa, i don 't really confirm or deny in this fic, she just knows A LOTTTTA medical stuff, she's a dr don't you know, well no but she can't breathe and its v scary okay?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-10
Updated: 2020-08-27
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:34:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 7,375
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24648040
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Amy hates hospitals, which proves to be bad news when she falls seriously ill with pneumonia.  Luckily a certain someone knows how to help.ORAmy gets sick and Rosa looks after her with the assistance of Jake
Relationships: Jake Peralta/Amy Santiago, Rosa Diaz & Amy Santiago
Series: Rosa's medical room adventures [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1960543
Comments: 8
Kudos: 50
Collections: Anonymous





	1. Chapter 1

“Please Rosa. I feel fine.” Amy smiled, trying to act as if everything didn’t hurt, she wasn’t freezing cold, and she could breathe without it feeling like there was glass in her lungs. Her failure to do so sooner had already caused Rosa to scoop her up like goddamn prince charming in the middle of the bullpen, whilst she assisting a civilian no less,and hurriedly carry her into the captain's office. Ray had of course agreed to leave to allow Amy some privacy, but it had been embarrassing being laid out onto his couch while he went to go apologize to the civilian.

  
  


“You do realise you can’t bullshit me, right? I went to med school.” 

“Hey, sorry it took so long. I got talking to office-” Rosa scowled at Jake as he let himself into the office. “But that’s irrelevant.” He flashed a nervous grin at his friend, letting her snatch the first aid kit off him “ How is she?” 

“You do realise I’m able to speak for myself right?.” Amy snapped, glaring at her husband.

“Yeah? Well I’m revoking speaking rights.” He fired back,suddenly in serious mode “You’re the one who’s been insisting you’re fine all week when you’re clearly too ill to even be at work.” 

“He’s right, Amy. You wouldn’t be in this position if you had just listened to us when we told you to take time off work.” Rosa agreed, setting the first aid kit out on the floor next to her and picking out what she wanted.

“Fuck the both of you,” Amy croaked, inwardly begging her body not to start a coughing fit, but it was too late. Within seconds, Rosa was hauling her upright as she spluttered thick mucus into the blanket. Jake was somehow turning more ashen than the patient herself just watching her. 

“I’m fine, I’m fine. Stop fussing.” She gasped when the coughing finally subsided. “You’re not fine.” Rosa muttered, shifting her friend so she was propped up in a sitting position “Don’t lie down. It’ll make it harder to breathe.” Amy just nodded, too winded to argue as Rosa stuck a SATs probe on her finger. 

“91%.” She muttered to herself a few moments later. “What’s that mean? Is it good?” Jake asked from somewhere behind her. “It could be better.” Rosa replied, trying to keep her voice even and calm. She pulled the probe off her friends’ finger, dumping it back in the first aid kit, and reached for the thermometer. “Can you turn your head for me?” Amy nodded and did as she was asked, trying to hide the fact that she was fighting to suck enough air into her lungs while she waited for the telltale beep that said this was all going to be over soon.

“103.2.”

“So does that mean....?” Jake asked, for once being extremely thankful for the extensive health insurance Amy had made them take out.

“Yep. You go get her stuff and tell the captain. I’ll call an ambulance. Once you’re done, come back here, okay?” Jake nodded, already halfway out the door “Yep!”

“Rosa no.” Amy whispered, reaching for the phone in Rosas’ hand as Jake closed the door behind him. “No hospital.” Rosa ignored her and continued anyway; Amy wasn’t in the right mind to be making these sort of choices. Unfortunately for her, she was quicker than she expected her to be and within a matter of seconds her phone was lying shattered on the floor.

“What the fuck, Santiago?” Rosa snapped, anger getting the better of her for a moment, but within seconds Amy had joined the phone on the floor and was stuck there, coughing and spluttering, but unable to summon enough strength to sit herself up so she could breathe. Rosa was quick to drag her friend into a sitting position and hold her there, but the older womans’ difficulties persisted for a good few minutes. 

“You’re alright, Amy. Just keep breathing.” Amy snorted, trust Rosa to state the obvious, but did as she was told anyways. “That’s it. Keep going.” 

“No hospital.” Amy whispered between gasps. “I… I can’t. They- They never believe me and it’s expensive an-” Amy broke off only to lean forward and grimace, trying to catch her breath so she didn’t have to cough again.

This alarmed Rosa more than the thought of not having Amy immediately rushed into hospital, and so in that moment, she gave in. She could try to get Amy back to hers, where she had a medical room (and specifically a nebuliser) waiting, and if that failed, she could always call an ambulance at a later time. “Okay.” She conceded. “We won’t -”

“- Alright the captain said he’s going to move everyone to the break room so we can have a bit of…” Jake trailed off, unable to tear his sight away from what lay on the floor before him.

“There’s been a change of plan.” Rosa began.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jake rushes Amy back to Rosas' apartment against his better judgement, and discovers a rather incredible secret Rosa has been keeping all these years.

“You sure you got her?” Rosa asked as she set Amy in the front seat of Jakes’ car, pulling back a little so he could do his wifes’ belt for her. “I can ride with you guys if you need me.” 

Jake flashed a smile “We’ll be okay, won’t we Ames?” Amy just groaned, which triggered another coughing fit, which, whilst short lived, was obviously painful and had her flopping back against her seat in exhaustion once over. “See? We’ll be fine!” 

Rosa knew Jake better than he knew himself, and she knew he was scared, probably more so than Amy. She also knew that he would rather die than let anything happen to her. And that’s the only reason why she found herself giving a curt nod, checking he knew where to go before she closed the door and ran over to her bike. They’d agreed that she would go in front so she could set things up back at the apartment before the car made it back to hers, and she’d be lying if she said she wasn’t looking forward to speeding through traffic in a way she was only allowed to do on time critical cases, but it was for the wrong reasons, and it sat funny in her chest.

In the few minutes it took to wait for Rosa to speed off ahead of them, and pull out of the parking lot, and turn on the sirens, it had begun to rain. At first, it was a drizzle, but as Jake pulled out onto the main road and toward Rosas’ apartment, the drops fell harder and faster. The headlights shone through the downpour, and he tried to stay focused on the road, gripping the steering wheel tight, but his attention kept being drawn back to Amy, who was huddled in the seat with her cheek pressed against the window. Even in the dimness of the cab, he could see the bright flush on her cheeks, and was positive her fever had risen more in just this short amount of time. He was probably certifiably insane to be trusting Rosa with this, and not instead driving straight to the hospital, but Rosa had said 1000 push ups and he was trying to be more trusting so here he was, driving Amy on blue lights to her apartment. And, if he was being honest with himself, he wasn't all that keen on hospitals himself, so actually this could work out nicely. Or it could not and he could be left a widow but he tried not to think about that.

The silence was full of her coughing, the sound grating up her throat, stealing the air from her lungs until she was gasping. She looked so small, curled up as she coughed into the blanket, letting out a soft whimper at the end of each fit. Just when she seemed to have settled down, and was possibly drifting back to sleep, her breath would catch, and another fit would start. Every so often, Jake would chance a glance over at her, feeling his heart clench at the sight of her pained face, tears falling from her lashes and down her cheeks. After a while, when he was confident that the roads were clear enough to risk driving one handed on sirens, he reached his hand over and laced his fingers in hers.She squeezed hard as another coughing fit had her lungs spasming, more tears running down her face as she cried out in pain.

He would have done anything to take it away.

*

Rosa was waiting outside her building when Jake pulled up, hair drenched from standing in the rain, not that she seemed to care. Jake had barely turned the engine off before she flung the door open and pulled a limp Amy into her arms, setting off yet another fit. “She can’t breathe, Jake, hurry up!”

Jake doubled his efforts and ran to the building door, holding it open for the duo as they sped walked through. “Go up and open the door. It’s unlocked. 5th floor, apartment 510.” Jake looked at the stairs in front of him and groaned. Why couldn’t Rosa have picked a building with a lift? “Move, Jake!”

And just like that, he was running up them, overtaking Rosa, who was going a little slower to ensure the safety of the woman in her arms, but was far from dawdling. Her shoulders were killing her and her legs burned, but she couldn’t stop. She had to get Amy inside.

“Third door on the right at the end of my hallway, past the kitchen, the code is 93672.” Rosa called when Jake reached her front door and was staring back at her, clearly not knowing where he was going. He nodded and pushed his way into her apartment. He’d only been there twice before, but he located the door he always thought led to a bathroom with relative ease and began to fiddle with the lock. It took a few hurried attempts before he got it right, but it was open in time for Rosa to rush through and set Amy on the bed in the middle of the room.

The room was large and bright, with a plethora of drawers and cabinets dotted around the perimeter. It had a hospital bed in the middle of it, a large window opposite the door, and two blue chairs in ethier corner under it . On the wall behind the bed were alarms and different bits of equipment he couldn’t name if he tried, with a large, computer screen like monitor above the bed on the right hand side.

“Jake!”

Jake blinked, pulling himself out of his daydream. “Huh?”

“I asked you to get the albuterol.”

Jake stared blankly at his friend, causing her to roll her eyes “Pink plastic drawer to your left. 6th one down. They’re like tiny plastic bottles.” Jake turned and instantly spotted the relevant set of drawers, all different colours, and labeled clearly on the front. _Where did she even get all of this stuff?_ He wondered, opening the pink draw to see three cardboard boxes neatly sitting in it. All were labeled but Rosa spoke up anyway. “It’s the box closest to you on the right. I just need one.” Jake nodded, picking one up and passing it to Rosa, trying not to look at his wife, who was resting against the sat up back of the bed and fighting for breath. 

Rosas’ hands were quick to set up the nebuliser and place the mask over Amys’ face. She wasn’t one for constant chatter to reassure, but when Amy jumped as she turned the machine on, she reached down and tangled her fingers in hers, squeezing for a moment before pulling away. “Get around the other side and hold your wifes’ hand. She needs you.” Jake did as he was told while Rosa ripped a nearby bag of tube open with her teeth. Unraveling it, she plugged it into a weird looking nozzle and moved Amys’ nebuliser mask down so it was just covering her mouth and chin. 

“What’s that?” 

“Nasal cannula. It gives her oxygen while she’s doing her nebs so she doesn’t keel over on us.”

Jake snorted “Nebs. Funny word.” Rosa just rolled her eyes and placed the tubing in Amys’ nose, draping the ends over her ears so she could replace her mask. Stepping back, she paused, taking in the moment and running through what she needed to do in her head. Amy had a fever and therefore an infection, so she’d need an IV put in and some antibiotics, probably Levofloxacin to start with. It was also going to be a good idea to run a bag or two of lactated ringers and get some IV acetaminophen in her to try get the fever under control. But that was going to take a while because Amy was obviously dehydrated and would take a while to get a line in so the priority was going to be getting her set up for obs.

“You okay Rosa?” Rosa turned to face Jake, who was staring worriedly at her. “Yep.” He nodded, obviously not believing her, but didn’t press the matter. Already, Amys’ breathing was easing, thanks to her. If she wanted privacy, then she could have it.

“Feeling better?” Rosa asked as she set up the blood pressure cuff on Amys’ arm and programmed the monitor to do it every 15 minutes. Amy nodded, not daring to take her mask off just yet but instead opting for a smile. Jake, now more reassured his wife wasn’t going to drop dead on him, pulled his chair closer and squeezed Amys’ hand. She squeezed back, mouthing “I love you.” At him. Rosa bit back a smile as she watched the two converse out of the corner of her eye. She was pretending to be extremely busy setting up the SATs probe now, but even Amy knew it really was a case of just sticking it on her finger and making sure the monitor would alarm if they dipped below 94. She turned to Rosa, poking her hip to get her attention, and mouthed ‘I love you too, sleuth sister’. 

Rosa sighed, trying to hide the smile tugging at her lips, “I love you too, dumbass.” 

Jake burst out laughing “Gay!”

Rosa was quick to slap him. “I’m bisexual.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jake tries to find out more about Rosa as they fight to get Amy's fever down

Amy’s cold.

So.

Cold.

“104.1.” Jake says, looking at the thermometer screen as Rosa sets a spare tray filled with IV supplies on the bed. “Alright. Go turn on the A/C, then get some clean white sheets on the bottom rack of the airing cupboard, soak them, and bring them in here. ” 

“On it.” 

Rosa turns to Amy, wincing as her friends body contracted for the upteenth time. “You think you can make the bed tremble any more?” It was a joke, but Amy found herself apologizing through gritted, and yet somehow still chattering teeth, anyway. “Sorry, I’m trying to stop it.” she whispered, her voice catching on her words.

“You’ve nothing to be sorry for. Rigours are the worst.” There’s a pause “I’m going to put an IV in, I might need to stab you a few times, but I promise you’ll feel much better once I’ve got fluids and some tylenol into you.” Amy nods, and Rosa crouches down, setting the tray next to her on the floor as she rolls Amy's’ shirt sleeve up, ties the tourniquet above her elbow and tries to find a vein.

*

“How’s it going- oh my that is a lot of blood.” Rosa shot Jake a look over her shoulder before turning back to securing the IV in place. “Yeah. But that’s why we’ve laminate floors in here.” Jake grimaced, stepping forward gingerly. “Stop being a baby and get over here. I need you to pull the sheets off Amy and replace them with the damp ones you’re holding.” 

Jake hesitated.

. “Move, Jake!”

* * *

“104 exactly.” Jake sighed

“At least its coming down.” Rosa resolved, casting a glance at the clock. 11:23pm. They had just over two hours before she could safely give Amy more  acetaminophen , but if they did nothing until then her fever would likely be dangerously high by the time it was due. In an ideal world, she’d put another line in somewhere and run some  antibiotics alongside the fluids but she’d been unable to get a vein on Amy’s other arm, and she wasn’t ready to risk anywhere else. Not to mention it was probably better for all involved to get bloods and then see exactly what was causing this rather than running the risk of using something like  levofloxacin, especially if this was viral.

Sighing, Rosa brought herself out of her thoughts and turned to Jake. “Get a bucket and fill it with lukewarm water. And 6 icepacks. They’re in the freezer. ” Jake nods and wonders off to find a bucket while Rosa stands up and opens the closet in the corner of the room. 

“Rosa? Where you goin?” Amy asks. It’s slurred and her teeth are chattering as she speaks, but Rosa knows what she’s saying. 

“I’m getting a fan. You’re burning up and we need to cool you down.”

“No..” Amy whines “I’m already so cold.” 

“I know you are. But we need to get your temperature down or you’ll only get worse.”

Amy gives what seems to be a groan of protest, mumbling something inaudible before giving up and closing eyes once again, her breathing labored and irregular. Rosa glances at the monitor as she plugs the fan in. Her SATs are dipping and It’s probably time for another round of  albuterol when she’s got the fever under control. Turning the fan on the highest, coldest setting, she makes her way over to Amy's’ bedside and pulls a non rebreather mask down from where it hung over the oxygen tap and sets it up. She’d meant to do it when Amy had finished the nebuliser, but the fever had taken priority, and she’d been left using the nasal cannula.

“I managed to find a clean sponge in the bathroom-” Jake trailed off as he saw Rosa placing the mask over his wife's’ face. “What’s going on? Is she okay?” 

“She’s fine, I just forgot to swap everything over.” 

Jake nodded, forgiving Rosa's’ mistake in an instant and setting the bowl of tepid water on a nearby wheelie table. “So how do we do this?”

“We pull her sheets off, undress her, put the ice packs under her armpits, knees and against her neck, sponge her down, resoak the sheet, lay it over her, and go from there.” Jake blinks, almost intimidated by his friends’ knowledge, “Where did you even learn all of this stuff?”

“I told you I went to med school.” Rosa says as she pushes the IV pole holding the bag of fluids out the way, and pulls the now dry sheet off her clammy, trembling friend who comes to just enough to give a grumble of protest before slipping back into her slumber.

“Yeah but you never said you were good.” Rosa shrugs at that, “Never said I was bad ethier. Pass the scissors I’m gunna cut this off.” Jake winces, but doesn’t protest as he hands them over. Clothes can be replaced, Amy can’t. “Okay so why did you quit?”

“That’s my business.” Jake recognises the tone of her voice as her final warning tone and so doesn’t push the matter. Instead he asks “Is it weird for you? Undressing Amy?” As he helps pull what remains of Amy's’ shirt out from under her.

“Is it weird for you?” Rosa retorts. 

“No? Why would it be? I’ve seen her naked plenty of times.”

“Gross.” There’s a pause as Rosa pulls the remainder of Amy's’ work pants out from under her.

“I’m just curious, you know? We’ve known each other for years, and I feel like I hardly know you sometimes.”

“Good. Pass me the icepacks.” Jake does as he’s told, and Rosa’s careful to wrap them in the remnants of Amy's’ uniform before positioning them in areas where blood ran close to the skin. Once they’re done, Jake dips the sponge he found in the water, rings it out, and then passes it to Rosa. 

“I mean you’re literally giving my wife a sponge bath right now.” 

“And?” Rosa asks as she begins wiping the exposed skin down, much to Amy's’ (feeble, semi aware) protest. “Just because I’m bisexual doesn’t mean I have to sexualise my sick friend,” 

“That’s actually a really good point.” Jake pauses “Although you’re saying that as you’re taking off my wife's’ bra.” Rosa rolls her eyes and throws it at him, making him yelp.

* * *

“102.3”

Rosa nods as she hangs a bottle of IV  acetaminophen up onto the stand and adjusts the flow so it’ll go within 15 minutes. “Good. This should get it down more then we can get her booked in with the doctor tomorrow for bloods.” 

“You can’t do them here?”

Rosa shook her head. “No, I’ve yet to turn my bathroom into a laboratory.” 

“I know you’re joking but that would be kind of cool. You could do experiments in the bath.” 

Rosa smirks “I don’t think that would end well.” She turns to look at the clock. 1:26 am. They’d spent the last 8 hours firefighting Amy's’ fever. “You should go to bed. It’s late.”

Jake shook his head, looking over to where his wife was sleeping, despite the noise of the nebuliser running. “I’m not leaving Amy. Besides you need your sleep too.”

“I’m going to get it. The chair you’re sitting in turns into a bed. I’ve just got to wait for the acetam-” Rosa trails off as her friend gawps at him, clearly totally lost,and realises that using drug names were lost on Jake. “-Tylanol to finish, once that’s done, the albuterol will be done too, I’m going to put up some ringers, put her on the non rebreather again, then I’m going to go to sleep.

Jake stared at his friend, half in awe, half confused “In english, doc.”

Rosa rolled her eyes “I will be going to sleep in here once I’ve made sure your wife is set for the night. And you’re going to sleep in the next room.” Jake opened his mouth to protest. “If you won’t do it yourself, I’ll make you.”

Jake scoffed “You can’t make me.”

“I’ve an entire compartment in that fridge dedicated to ativan.”

“Okay, so turns out you can make me.” He stood up, snatching a spare pillow off the end of the bed dramatically as he marched out. “I miss when you used to be fun and let me stay up all night working cases!” 

“Wrong way, Jake!”


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Amy wakes up following a hard night, and together the trio work hard to get her ready for a doctors appointment

Amy groans as she inhales cool, fresh air, and then splutters, mucus and blood coming up to settle in her mouth. She lifts an arm out from under the clammy sheets to wipe her mouth as drool tumbles from her lips, but is stopped by the feel of plastic.

“Morning sunshine.” 

The voice is soft and familiar, but Amy’s still unable to place it until a hand gently captures hers and pulls it away from her face. “I know it’s hard but Rosa said you gotta keep your mask on.”

_ Jake _

Amy forces her eyes open, squinting even though the only light was coming from the dimmed ceiling lights, to see her husband sat by her bedside smiling at her. He reaches forward and sweeps the sticky hair off her forehead. “How you feeling?”

Amy sighs. Then coughs. Violently. Jake’s quick to sit the head of the bed up more but she has already thrown herself forward so she’s doubled over and fights to get her breath back. When it’s over, and she forces herself upright so she can flop back against the bed, Jake gives a soft chuckle “I take it you’ve been better.” Amy nods, closing her eyes again momentarily. She’s tired, her entire body aches, she’s warm, though not uncomfortably so, her head feels like it’s stuffed with cotton, and as for her lungs, even holding her breath so she didn’t have to endure the feeling of a million tiny eleves slashing their way through the inside of them hurt.

“You want some water?” Amy considers the offer for a moment. On one hand she wanted to go back to sleep and not wake up until everything was over and she was better again. On the other, the taste of blood and feel of mucus still lingered in her mouth. “Rosa says even though you’ve got fluids running you need to drink, babe.” He pauses “You get to take your mask off.” He says it as if he knows it’s his best bargaining chip, the one that’ll have Amy jumping off of rooftops if it means she can have a few moments of freedom without looking like some kind of alien. And he’s right of course. Amy relents with a nod and he helps her pull her mask down around her neck.

“When did you start listening to Rosa?” She jokes when its off, accepting the plastic cup and downing its contents regrettably fast given it sets off yet another coughing fit. Jake is quick to react, taking the cup in one hand and replacing the mask with the other. “When my idiot wife decided to go get sick and ignore it until it almost killed her.” Amy rolls her eyes and leans back, spluttering done with. “It’s just a cold, Jake. You can’t die from the cold.” 

“Tell that to  Robert Falcon Scott.”

* * *

Rosa sighed to herself as she placed three halved strawberries on each of Jake’s pancakes. There were four in total, all nutella stuffed and golden brown. Picking up the plate, she set it down on the table and turned the tv on. “Jake! Get your ass in here!” 

There was no reply. Rolling her eyes, Rosa picked up the bowl of soup she’d made for Amy and headed into the medical room. Jake was sat by Amy’s bedside still, watching as she dozed. “Jake your breakfast is on the table. Go eat. I’ll take over here.” Jake opened his mouth to protest but one look at Rosa ensured nothing came out of it. “Do as she says babe.” Amy mumbled, voice mostly drowned out by her mask. Jake nods and slinks off, but his vocal joy when he sees his food is evident, even from down the corridor.

“I made him pancakes.”

Amy smiled “I think that’s obvious to your entire building.” She pauses, “But thank you. You didn’t have to do that.” 

Rosa shrugs as she sets the small bowl of soup on the wheelie table “Don’t mention it. He wasn’t going to eat otherwise and I can’t handle both of you sick at the same time.” Amy glances the soup out of the corner of her eye and braces herself. “Anyway, you want me to disconnect you so you can go to the bathroom?” 

* * *

Amy tries to walk. She really does. But the second she stands up she falls forward into Rosa’s waiting arms.

* * *

“You think you can eat?” Rosa asks as she reconnects Amy to the various wires and machines. Amy looked at the bowl of chicken soup waiting for her and, whilst the trip out of the room had given her a little more energy, she wasn’t keen on the idea. Even so, she smiled and, feigning enthusiasm, sat a bit more upright “Yep!” Rosa raised an eyebrow but didn’t comment, instead reaching across Amy to plug her nasal cannula into the wall. She puts it on gently as her friend rolls her eyes, but even Amy can’t deny the instant change in her ability to breathe with it on. 

“We’ve got a doctors appointment at 2:30 for some bloods and a checkup.” Rosa begins, wheeling the table closer so it’s over the bed and adjusting it accordingly. She decides against mentioning the fact that they might want a chest xray and a sputum sample too. “So after this I’ll run your nebs and you can get some sleep.” Amy rolled her eyes as she reached for her spoon “I don’t know how you expect me to sleep with that thing on.” Rosa opened her mouth to respond, but Amy was already tucking into her breakfast. “Fill me up you chicken-y bastard.”

Rosa snorts at that, but her attention was snatched away from her friend’s antics as the iv pump alarm went off. “I fucking hate this thing.” She growled as she bashed a few keys on the keypad until it stopped alarming. “It doesn’t like that your elbow is bent.”

“Good job I’m straight.” Amy quipped, making Rosa scoff as she gently straightened Amy’s arm out “You’re going to have to eat with your other hand. That okay?” Amy nods and picks up her spoon, only to wince and drop it. 

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, it’s just a little burned.” Rosa stared at her “I was trying to make soup for my flask for work and I forgot that the pan handle gets hot.” Rosa bursts into hysterics (or hysterics for her) “Don’t laugh! It hurt!” but Amy’s smiling. And then she’s laughing, which in turn causes her to cough, and she has to snatch the napkin off the table so she doesn’t decorate everything within a 2 meter radius in (probably) infectious snot.

Rosa is there with a bin when she stops. Amy throws the napkin in and apologies “Sorry, I didn’t realise that laughing was a trigger. 

“No shit.” Rosa states dryly. “But you don’t have to be sorry. You’ve done nothing wrong and you’re sick. These things happen.” She turns to the bowl of soup she’d pushed away so Amy didn’t faceplant in it “You still want this?”

She doesn’t, she really doesn’t, in fact she’s convinced she’ll only end up coughing it everywhere, but Rosa had probably spent a long time cooking it and she was determined to not waste food. “Please.” Rosa nods and moves it closer “You okay if I feed you, or do you want me to get Jake?” 

Amy answers without thinking “You.” She pauses “I-If that’s okay with you. Don’t wanna ruin your badass vibe or whatever.” Rosa shrugs “You’re not ruining it. Nobody around here knows me. And even if they did and they could see me right now it wouldn’t matter. You’re sick, you’re my friend, I’m going to take care of you.”

“Awww.”

“Shut up and eat your soup.”

* * *

Amy is tired and full after just a few mouthfuls, so try as she might she can’t finish it. Which is a pity as Rosa is actually a good cook and the soup was tasty. Regardless, Rosa seems to sense when she’s had enough and pulls the table away. Amy doesn’t argue, not even when she sets up the nebuliser and makes her sit through yet another treatment.

It’s finished by the time Jake walks through the door. Rosa is in the middle of hanging up another bottle of acetaminophen and Amy is asleep. “Sorry I took so long, I found out that you have netflix and figured you and Amy were having some gal time so-”

Rosa cut him off “It’s fine Jake, relax. You’re allowed to have time off.” He sighed, then nodded. “Speaking of, don’t you need a break?” She sighed, looking at her patient, then nodded. At some point this week (probably tomorrow if Amy stayed recovering like she was) she was going to need to go back to work and leave Jake of all people in charge of Amy. She could have a nurse come in two or three times a day to make sure he hadn’t killed her and help with the cooking and cleaning but they were expensive to hire by the hour. Plus she figured he would appreciate being alone with his wife.

“You don’t need to do much, just keep an eye on her. We’ve got a doctors appointment at 2:30 so we need to be out of here for around 1:45 ish given brooklyn traffic as it’s a good few blocks away and we’ve a sick patient on board.” She pauses, pointing up at the monitor “That thing takes her blood pressure automatically every few hours, if it alarms, come get me. In fact if anything alarms come get me.” She stands up, walking to where the iv stand was stood, and watching as the final drops of acetaminophen dripped into Amy’s veins before taking the bottle down and disconnecting Amy.

“Stuff like this goes in the trash but you shouldn’t need to disconnect anything and if you think you do, come get me.”

“Come get you.” Rosa and Jake spoke at the same time. She nodded, satisfied he was taking this seriously enough as she opened the fridge and pulled out a bag of lactated ringers. “I’m going to put this up, take her temperature, and then leave you to it. Okay?”

“Copied and received cap-i-tan.” he pauses, tilting his head “Or is it Received and copied?” he grins, waving the thought off “I don’t know, ethier way it is understood and I won’t let you down.”

Rosa grimaces and hopes she’s not making a mistake trusting him.

* * *

Miraculously, when Rosa returns, armed with clean clothes for Amy, she is not only alive but awake and sipping at a silicone straw Jake is holding to her lips. “Oh hey Rosa,” he says as she walks in, “I’m just helping Amy drink some of the soup you made her.” Rosa’s mouth closes and she freezes, staring at Jake in a blind panic. The soup will have gone cold by the time he got to it, and would have needed reheating to kill off any microbes. “Relax,” he grinned when he saw her face “I heated it up first, then tested it on my forearm to make sure it wasn’t too hot. I’m not an idiot.” 

“I had to tell him to do all of that.” Amy coughs, pulling away from the straw “He tried to poison me at first.” Rosa folds her arms across her chest and glares at Jake who holds his hands up in mock surrender “It’s not my fault! I’ve never gone to med school!”

“Nor has she,” Rosa nodded at Amy

“Yeah but she’s super smart and always reading books and stuff. Like two weeks ago she was reading a paper on negative refraction! She’s obviously smarter than me!”

“Captain Holt reccomended it to me.” Amy mumbled

Rosa opens her mouth to retaliate, but then closes it again with a shake of her head “We don’t have time for this.” She begins, “Jake you need to warm Amy’s food up before giving it to her, especially if it’s a meat product. Amy, you have weird hobbies. We all have a doctor's appointment in just over an hour, so Jake,” She throws the clothes onto the end of Amy’s bed, “help get your wife dressed, I’ll pull the car around to the front of the building, and we can leave.”

She spins around on her heels, ready to storm off, only to find her legs collapsing from underneath her. 


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Amy goes to her doctors appointment while Rosa fixes herself up... but is there more to her health than meets the eye?

“Shit, sorry Rosa, I thought I cleaned that up!”

Rosa groans at Jake. Nothing ever went to plan as long as he was involved in it. He kneels next to her with the same manic energy that no doubt caused him to spill soup in the first place “Are you hurt? Do you want an ambulance?” Rosa is about to furiously refuse when he grimaces and gives a loud cry “I think you’ve hurt your shoulder… its kind of… twisted.” He turns around and gags just from thinking about it.

Rosa rolls her eyes and heaves herself upright, clinging onto the doorhandle for a bit of stability before dusting herself down with her good arm. “I’m fine.”

“You sure Rosa? That doesn’t look… right.” Rosa reached over to feel her shoulder. It gave a pang when she touched it and she knew by feel alone it was dislocated. “You’re in this situation because you ignored your symptoms, you don’t get a vote.”

“Hey! That’s my wife you’re talking about!”

“So? Doesn’t make it untrue.” Rosa glances at the clock. 1:48. They were already bushing the boundary of ‘running late’, Amy wasn’t dressed yet, Jake was busy trying not to look at her shoulder, and there was no way she’d be able to get both of them to the appointment safely and on time unless they got in the car now. Sighing, she turned and walked over to Amy’s bed, picking a tshirt off the end of it “Jake go get the car and pull around front. I’ll meet you down there in ten. Keys are in the dish by the door.”

“There’s no way you aren’t going to hospital.”

“Rosa it’s okay,” Amy smiles, pushing herself forward so she was sat independently of the bed “We can cancel my appointment. I’m feeling much better and-.”

“-I need to know what we’re dealing with to treat it properly.” There’s no room for argument in Rosa’s tone, even the gentle push to get her friend to rest against the head of the bed was accompanied with a warning stare.“ A busted shoulder isn’t gonna kill me. I can’t say the same for your lungs. Now hands up. I need to get this over your head.” Amy rolls her eyes and does what she’s told, only to set the IV pump off again. Shit. Rosa forgot she was still attached to everything. Throwing the shirt back down onto the bed, she turns to argue with the pump. Stupid thing never worked right.

When it had shut up, Rosa set about disconnecting Amy, who was exchanging looks with her husband.“Why don’t we split up?” He eventually suggests, “ Rosa can go and have that-” he looked at her leather cladded shoulder and winced “Horrifying... thing sorted out and I’ll take Ames to her appointment. That way nobody dies, and I don’t have to never look at Rosa again.”

“Can you carry her?”

“Probably not.”

“Then how are you going to get her in and out of the car? She can barely stand up.”

“We get inventive.”

* * *

“I told you it would come in handy!” Jake grins. Rosa resists rolling her eyes in favor of focusing on hooking his wife up to the ceiling hoist with her good arm. She must be fucking crazy to agree to let this happen.

“I can’t believe you have a hoist but don’t have a wheelchair.” Amy groans as she’s lifted clear of the bed. She can’t deny the sling is comfy, and had she been feeling better, she’d have happily stayed dangling from the ceiling all day.

“I’ve already told you; I loaned it to a friend.” 

Jake scoffs “Since when do you have friends?”

“You have literally admitted multiple times today that you don’t know me.” Rosa’s tone is sharp as she lowers Amy into her vessel, unhooking her sling in preparation for heading out, and Jake can’t help but wonder if it was her shoulder that was making her grouchy. Because if it was, it would suggest she wasn’t some kind of superhuman. He doesn’t dare suggest it though. 

* * *

“You sure you can breathe okay?” Rosa asks ten minutes later, when they’re outside of her building and she’s preparing to watch Jake wheel his wife down the street in a shopping cart without laughing. 

Amy nods from where she’s resting against the side of her cart, surrounded in pillows and blankets. “I’m fine, Rosa, stop worrying. We’ll be okay.”

Rosa ignores her and turns to her husband “You sure you can handle the walk? It’s nearly 15 blocks from here.”

“Rosa you’ve known me for a little over 10 years now. Do you really think I’m so unfit I can’t walk my wife to the doctor?”

“Yes.”

“Well that’s hurtful. But you heard her. We’ve conquered worse than doctors appointments before, so we’ll be fine. Go call yourself an ambulance, we’ll meet you back here in a few hours.”

Rosa wants to keep probing, and ideally rush Amy back inside so she can refuse to let her anywhere near the “professionals” but instead she nods and steps back. “Be careful. Don’t let the doctor fuck you around. Call me if you need me.” 

“Got it mum!” Jake yells jokingly over his shoulder as he pushes the cart away, and Rosa smiles as she watches them disappear.

* * *

_Fuck_ , Rosa thinks to herself when she finally gets her jacket off so she could stare at her shoulder in the bedroom mirror. It’s misshapen, obviously, and a large bruise is forming over it, but that’s not what startled her. Her entire arm has gone a light shade of blue, and now that she thinks about it, she can’t really feel anything through it. Funnily enough, she may actually end up in hospital herself. 

_That’s not going to happen_ , Rosa reminds herself. More importantly Amy was counting on her to have two arms coming out of this and she sure as hell wasn’t about to risk losing one to self pity. Turning away from the mirror, she heads through to the medical room, this time stepping over the puddle of soup that was still lying in the doorway. She probably needed to clean that up at some point. The room is slightly askew from leaving Jake in it unattended, but she manages to find what she needs without issue, sets it all out on the table and then remembers she should have probably disinfected it first. _Eh. It won’t kill me_ , she thinks to herself, ignoring the fact that it very well could.

It’s always a shock to her when she pulls her shirt down just a little bit more and sees her port. Rosa doesn’t know why. She’s had it for long enough. Sighing, she pushes that thought out of her mind and sets about perching herself onto the bed, pulling the table with her. The routine of accessing her port so she can push her PRN has become...normal somehow. She can’t work out why, especially given she’s got a working PEG-J for day to day meds as well as food, done it less than twice in the last year, and both of those times her port was already accessed as she’d been struggling a fair amount. In all fairness, she probably should have done this much sooner than she did, primarily for safety, but she hadn’t been keen on becoming septic.

When the last of the syringes are emptied into her, and the oxycodone is well on its way to kicking in, she shoves all of the rubbish into the nearby trash can, raises her arm, takes a deep breath, and starts the process of getting her shoulder back in.

By the time Rosa’s done, she’s sleepy and warm, but she knows better than to let herself drift asleep in Amy’s bed. She needs to change the bedding, clean the room, and be alert when the Jake and Amy come home. She struggles to think about what she has to do to get rid of this feeling, but then sees the bag of ringers waiting for her on the table and remembers.

It’s always been a faff to get fluids up and running but today it’s extra hard. Rosa has to cling to the very unstable IV stand as she plays loopa with the bag (for a good twenty minutes). Fiddling with her port is worse, she aims, then misses repeatedly, jabbing the connector with her fingers in a way that means she’s got to disinfect it again.When she finally gets it hooked up and connected, she tries to stand, only to nearly faint. So instead she half crawls, half drags herself into her room, through the soup, pulling the stand behind her. When she finally hauls herself through the threshold of her bedroom, she kicks the door closed, and collapses into a heap. Chores can be done later.


End file.
